This blog is intended to do "exactly what it says on the tin" so below are some of my 'Thoughts on Music'. They predominantly concern recent matters but will not always do so. I'll also happily turn to matters of the music industry more generally if and when I feel so inclined. So there!
If you don't agree with something please feel free to add a comment. They are moderated by me (so I'll get to read it) and I might even reply. Above all however just enjoy whatever music you like!
Richard

Monday, May 17, 2010

It's a long way to nowhereAnd I'm leaving very soonOn the way we pass so closeTo the back side of the moon

Come join the travellerIf you've got nowhere to goHang your head and take my handIt's the only road I know

Oh, lonely is the word

I've been higher than stardustI've been seen upon the sunI used to count in millions thenNow I only count in onesCome join the travellerIf you've got nowhere to goHang your head and take my handIt's the only road I know

Got to be the saddest sound I've ever heardYeah, lonely is the nameMaybe life's a losing game.

Ronnie James Dio (July 10, 1942 - May 16, 2010) holds a remarkable place in heavy metal and heavy rock history. When Ritchie Blackmore walked away from the extremely successful Deep Purple to found a solo project, as he felt his bandmates were taking a bad direction, he was doubly fortunate. Firstly he was able to recruit RJD to his band that would début with the album 'Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow' in 1975. It was phenomenally good, very influential and there were three things that really matter here:

Blackmore and Dio clicked, sharing similar ambition.

Blackmore could write heavy rock music, Dio could both write and sing the lyrics to go with it.

They were both phenomenal virtuoso guitarists, giving Rainbow something that Deep Purple never quite had.

Rainbow were to record three almost flawless albums with Dio, during the UK Punk period that was then making life very difficult for heavy rock/metal. That was not to be the end of Dio however for when Ozzy Osbourne quit the increasingly fossilized Black Sabbath the others quickly recruited him and the result was another remarkable album.The Black Sabbath albums, 'Black Sabbath' and 'Paranoid' (both 1970) still stand the test of time but so does 'Heaven and Hell' (1980), which marked a return to favour for the band and another level of achievement.

Music and arrangement is credited to all four band members, and it is something of a departure from the previous albums, but all lyrics are credited to Dio - and in those it shows. Never before had Sabbath revealed something so credible, yet elegantly elegiac, as Lonely Is The Word. It is the last track on 'Heaven and Hell'.

More importantly, given his track record, and I feel that this issue is understated in importance as well as the second in which Blackmore was prescient; Dio was an American in a genre that until that point had been largely been dominated by either UK or German (sometimes co-operative such as UFO) heavy rock/metal. Had that not been the case then I rather doubt that the situation would be as it is now, on either side of the Atlantic.

We sailed across the airBefore we learned to flyWe thought that it could never endWe'd glide above the groundBefore we learned to runNow it seems our world has come undone.

I can only try to imagine how much time I spent listening to music like this in my college years and now I don't regret it for a moment.